Christian Doppler Laboratory for Fungal Biotechnology, Lehrstuhl für Allgemeine und Molekulare Botanik, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, D-44780 Bochum, Germany.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2013 Jan 22;110(4):1476-81. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1217943110. Epub 2013 Jan 10.
Penicillium chrysogenum is a filamentous fungus of major medical and historical importance, being the original and present-day industrial source of the antibiotic penicillin. The species has been considered asexual for more than 100 y, and despite concerted efforts, it has not been possible to induce sexual reproduction, which has prevented sexual crosses being used for strain improvement. However, using knowledge of mating-type (MAT) gene organization, we now describe conditions under which a sexual cycle can be induced leading to production of meiotic ascospores. Evidence of recombination was obtained using both molecular and phenotypic markers. The identified heterothallic sexual cycle was used for strain development purposes, generating offspring with novel combinations of traits relevant to penicillin production. Furthermore, the MAT1-1-1 mating-type gene, known primarily for a role in governing sexual identity, was also found to control transcription of a wide range of genes with biotechnological relevance including those regulating penicillin production, hyphal morphology, and conidial formation. These discoveries of a sexual cycle and MAT gene function are likely to be of broad relevance for manipulation of other asexual fungi of economic importance.
产黄青霉是一种具有重要医学和历史意义的丝状真菌，是抗生素青霉素的原始和现今的工业来源。该物种已经被认为是无性的超过 100 年，尽管进行了协同努力，但一直不可能诱导有性生殖，这阻止了有性杂交用于菌株改良。然而，利用交配型（MAT）基因组织的知识，我们现在描述了可以诱导有性周期的条件，导致减数分裂子囊孢子的产生。使用分子和表型标记获得了重组的证据。鉴定的异宗交配有性周期用于菌株开发目的，产生具有与青霉素生产相关的新特征组合的后代。此外，MAT1-1-1 交配型基因，主要用于控制性别的身份，也被发现控制着生物技术相关的广泛基因的转录，包括那些调节青霉素生产、菌丝形态和分生孢子形成的基因。有性周期和 MAT 基因功能的这些发现可能对其他具有经济重要性的无性真菌的操纵具有广泛的意义。
